Small-Town Tennessee: A View From The Ground, Late February

Saturday was lovely, and Mr. and Mrs. OS took the occasion to browse around our little town. Brunch at the diner, a bit of shopping, low-key. It is a blessing to live here.

There is a recovery of sorts underway here, evidenced by the fact that some young families are moving in, and back from other places, to raise their kids and start small businesses. The state, and this region in particular, has been a de facto plantation of the Democrat Party since the end of Reconstruction, which grip was finally broken last November. Elections matter, if for no other reason than the change of attitude that can flow from them.

The young restaurant owner offered a cogent observation--People have less money, so they will spend carefully, on good quality purchases. Perhaps the WalMart-fueled Race To The Bottom is about to end. The small gift shops and antique stores had some trade, although there are still empty storefronts aplenty. Again, good merch at good prices, very carefully purchased seems to be the rule. No one's blowing money, and no one's getting rich. But there is some optimism in the air.

On the other hand, the price of fuel and groceries is really beginning to hit hard on everyone. The hard winter clobbered the fruit and veg growers, more than tripling the price of tomatoes for the restaurant, for instance. Add to that the spike in diesel fuel, grains, etc. The latest pound of butter purchased was nearly twice the price of six months previous. Pet food prices are spiking. Clothing prices are expected to follow. The local men's store has beautiful stuff, but is holding modest inventories only.

The local athletic club parking lot was full yesterday afternoon, and the golf club has had a steady trade. Truck traffic is up on nearby I-40. A buddy who is a building contractor has booked four houses to build, after a frightening two years. He is relieved, to say the least.

Again, it is such a blessing to live here. Here's hoping the good trends continue.

A Good Way To End The Week

OS really did mean to work today, honestly.

But it's the first Friday of autumn, both he and Mrs. OS have been running with the physical and emotional throttles wide open for the past couple of weeks.

We put the youngest child on the plane Wednesday, sending him off to college. Not just the college of his choice, but the one of his dreams. It was a proud moment, but the silence in the empty nest can be deafening

So, OS played hooky, and is so glad he did. Lunch at a lovely small restaurant owned by a brave young couple. Then a visit to the Mennonites, who run a bakery way off the beaten path, followed by a visit to a Mennonite-owned nursery. Filled the back of the car with purple asters.

We had fun, just for its own sake. Hell's-Bells, OS even drank most of a beer with his lunch, and Mrs. OS enjoyed a glass of white wine. A complete departure from our lives of industrious and productive sobriety.

It was a good day. It made OS grateful for all his many blessings of family, friends and occupation. It also made him aware how wonderful are our freedoms.

Off to bed. Another day in a wonderful part of the world to awaken to.

Memphis, Tennessee--A Whole Lotta Carry Permits Issued

For OldSouth's readership from across the globe, Memphis probably means Elvis, Johnny Cash, barbecue, Beale Street, Blue Suede Shoes and the duck parade at the Peabody Hotel. It's those things, to be sure, but the reality of Memphis is actually quite gritty. A lot of widespread poverty, a lot of concentrated wealth, a long tradition of corrupt machine politics, all situated on a 'choke-point' for all modes of shipping, north-south-east-west, in North America. Built on the nineteenth-century cotton trade(which was predicated on slavery), everything about the place is shot through with race. Locate the city in a brutally hot climate, next door to Arkansas and Mississippi, and stir gently. What could go wrong?

Well, they have always had a crime problem, a drug-and-despair fuelled crime problem, a completely-senseless-murder-and-mayhem-as-a-way-of-life problem.

So, from today's Commercial Appeal:

The simultaneous election of a leftist President and Congress, and a severe economic downturn, have led to a surge in handgun permits across the state, and especially in Memphis.

The number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to go armed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year — to 268,711, according to new state statistics. That's an increase of 23 percent over the 218,004 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits on Jan. 1, 2009. By comparison, the 2008 increase was 14 percent, according to Tennessee Department of Safety figures.

In Shelby County, the number of residents with handgun-carry permits jumped by 5,205 in 2009 to 38,130, up 16 percent. The Shelby County increase in 2008 was 15 percent.
The new data indicate that about 6 percent of Tennessee residents old enough to have a handgun-carry permit -- those ages 21 and up -- had one at the start of this year.

The permit rate is a little lower among people with Memphis addresses. The 20,716 people in the city with gun permits account for about two out of every 50 Memphis residents 21 and up, or nearly 5 percent.

Knoxville has the highest concentration of permit-holders among the state's largest cities: More than 11 percent of its residents 21 and up are licensed to carry firearms.

That's two years of double-digit increases, year over year.  The article notes a bit later that violent crime rates dropped dramatically as the rate of handgun ownership rose. Of course, the two facts were separated in the article, and no possible correlation between the two phenomena was mentioned. 

It's probably impossible to validly correlate one with the other, but the coincidence is striking. If a person with intent to commit a crime knows he faces a real probability that his potential victim is packing, that is a true incentive to make better life decisions. 

Tennessee is a 'right-to-carry' state, a 'must-issue' state. Ergo, any legal resident of the state with proof of citizenship, no criminal record, who passes the mandated course, completes the application, and pays his $115, will be issued a conceal-carry permit. Comply with the statute, and the State must comply as well. Easy-peasy.


OS predicts the trend will continue...